Ignorance on Display....

Messing With Medicare

By PAUL KRUGMAN

NY Times

Published: July 24, 2011

Where do I start with this mess....?  How about this:

For Medicare, with all its flaws, works better than private insurance. It has less bureaucracy and, hence, lower administrative costs than private insurers. It has been more successful in controlling costs. 

What do you think?  Ignorance?  Wilful-ignorance?  

Also, did I mention that Republicans are doing all they can to undermine health care reform — they even tried to undermine it as part of the debt negotiations — and may eventually succeed? If they do, many of those losing Medicare coverage would find themselves unable to replace it.

I guess Krugman missed the part of Obamacare that strips $500,000,000 from Medicare and thrusts Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board...?

The bottom line?  Paul Krugman proving once again that he lives in some sort of parallel universe: "For Medicare, with all its flaws, works better than private insurance. It has less bureaucracy and, hence, lower administrative costs than private insurers. It has been more successful in controlling costs."  Really?  Does he believe this crap?  Does he have ageing parents?  Has he seen the bureaucratic paperwork jungle seniors must navigate? 

As with absolutely every industry in which the government regulates the most, prices for private insurance are raising faster than (official) inflation.  Why is he not screaming about the fact that colleges are raising tuition faster than even the costs of healthcare are raising? 

Has anyone asked the question, "Why is the price of college tuition outpacing even the price of health care, when in reality the actual cost to deliver an education, due to technology advances, is significantly decreasing?"  Could it be that with the nationalization of student loans the free market is skewed?  Could it be that the same thing is occurring in private insurance (notice I did not say healthcare - healthcare and health insurance are two very different things). 

Now people like Mr. Krugman want to add yet another layer by forcing government control over all healthcare:  “Most health reformers I know would have supported Medicare for all if they had considered it politically feasible.”  Nothing will be more expensive than free healthcare. 

We DO NOT have a healthcare crisis in this country.  Everyone has access to healthcare – everyone.  No one is turned away at hospitals.  What we have in a 3^rd party payer system, so prices for services rendered are never enter into patient/doctor discussions.  That is the single greatest problem with our system.  My Dad ran a gas station and I am pretty sure he paid the doctors bill for my delivery in gasoline and the hospital bill in cash.  Prices were negotiated and not submitted to a 3^rd party to decide what should and shouldn’t get paid. 

I, for one, have long since given up the concept that I’ll be provided free healthcare and get paid my social security benefits when I reach retirement age.  The money is simply not there and to tell the American people that it will be is the cruelest of lies.  We are simply on an unsustainable spending path, when $.42 of every dollar we spend in borrowed.  Means testing and raising the age for future beneficiaries now, so they can plan accordingly is the only responsible thing to do.  Of course, when do liberals ever care about doing the responsible thing?  They only care about doing the things that make them feel good, regardless of the future consequences.  Does Mr. Krugman even know that Obamacare guts $500,000,000 from Medicare?  Does he even know that Obamacare already has the mechanisms in place to ration healthcare via the newly created Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board?  Does he even care about facts, or is all about what makes him feel good?